Marilyn Monroe died 55 years ago today

Love the house.

I've never understood the appeal or fascination with her.

She always seemed kind of tacky to me.

Massively renovated since she died there. The master bath tile work is the only contribution Monroe made to the house that remains from her short residency.

You aren't a straight man R2.

She was amazingly photogenic. She must have been photographed every single day of her life during fame and you can't really find a bad photo of her.

What a face.

Haha stupid cunts...she never would have made it to 91

She might have. Her poor-man's rival is still alive and in her 80's.

Nor will you, R91. But keep laughing.

I mean, R6.

She had something no one else ever had. She was flawed, damaged, desperate, immature, weary, lazy, with an image that was a complete pastiche of film and influences. But out of all that she projected an authenticity completely her own. There was a genius working, being able to integrate all that crap into a unique persona.

Of course the human being inside all that couldn't survive the pressure. And she had few real allies to help her, and probably would have manipulated them out of influence anyway.

I don't know that the mob and all killed her, but that property sure had a lot of traffic as she lay there. And I believe the stories of the ambulance taking her out and then putting her back. As Peter Lawford said, "Marilyn had her last big enema."

Not a huge fan, but in Some Like It Hot she was incandescent.

No one had or has a better smile than Marilyn.

I don't think foul play played a part in her death. She was a mess.

I hope there is something good after we die and that she found the peace and happiness she never had in life. RIP MM.

She never recovered from the abuse she endured as a child - whether it was sexual abuse or just abandonment.

Marilyn's half-sister Berniece Inez Gladys Baker Miracle (the BIG BM!), reportedly born in 1919, looked great for a senior citizen.

THAT is because you are a dull person R2.

Have to agree with R2. Her appeal is simply lost on me. Acting styles change; it is not uncommon that people who were stars many years ago seem barely watchable nowadays. As an aside, by today's standards she was a bit of a cow.

MM's impact and influence on the cultural zeitgeist extends far beyond her body of work in film, which is fairly small. She's the quintessential sex symbol of the Hollywood Golden Age and she'll still be remembered equally as well in another 55 years, and most likely well beyond.

You aren't a gay man, R2.

Gee, I wish I could say things like "cultural zeitgeist". Anyway, there's no doubt she will continue to be remembered as a big star, like Theda Bara and Clara Bow are still remembered. That said, whatever appeal she had for people in the last century is well past its sell-by date. Monroe's acting seems to come off today as overly contrived.

[quote]. That said, whatever appeal she had for people in the last century is well past its sell-by date.

Wrong. The appreciation for her acting style may be lost for some, but her appeal as a cinema persona is still huge. There's just something about her that is truly perennial. Never will fade. The MM brand still makes millions every year.

If it were so perennial and unfading, it would seem that something would be apparent to the rest of us.

I think Marilyn Monroe must have spent half of her time posing for photo shoots. Everytime I turn around I see a blurb: Never Seen Before Photos Of Marilyn Monroe Discovered! She's still very famous 55 years later.

Ironically, 2 film icons, Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe made their very last film in the same movie, "The Misfits".

Montgomery Clift was also in the movie, drugged up, drinking, and in bad shape, and it was reported that Marilyn told him that he was the only actor she ever had met who was in worse shape than her.

R25 Montgomery Clift died in 1966 at only 45 years of age. His body was ravaged by life in the fast lane, stress, internalized homophobia, and he died far too young. He only reached part of the greatness that could have been.

Today is birthday (thank you 😊🙃) and she passed away on my 40th birthday so it was a hard day in every way. It's always a topic of discussion with my older sister and my partner, whom both celebrated with me on that day. It was a sad day but a happy day (for me). But, it was a big deal when the news broke that she had passed away.

R27 = Methusalah

Happy 95th, R27!

The house wasn't that great when she was living in it. It was barely furnished and didn't even have adequate indoor plumbing. She got a Spanish style house because her possessive psychiatrist Ralph Greenson had a similar one. She'd never had a home of her own in her life before this one, and she'd barely lived in it before she died. Photos of her bedroom after her body had been taken out showed a messy, nondescript room; I guess it was a reflection of her state of mind. She was a mental wreck at the end.

Marilyn had two doctors who didn't know about each other. One prescribed Nembutal barbituates, and the other prescribed a barbituate enema. On the night she died, Marilyn took the Nembutal but woke up a while later and couldn't get back to sleep, so she had her housekeeper give her the enema. The combination was too much and she overdosed. She didn't commit suicide and she wasn't murdered. It was just a terrible tragic accident.

R31 The verdict isn't in on that yet. Was it an accidental overdose or 'interference' by powerful people? I doubt that we'll ever know. But a lot of things just don't add up about her death.

Marilyn's half-sister Berneice is still alive at age 98!

Outside of DL people know who Theda Bara and Clara Bow are?

Wasn't Berneice left out of Marilyn's will? I think she left everything to the Strasbergs.

[quote]Outside of DL people know who Theda Bara and Clara Bow are?

I don't think so. Unfortunately.

Wow, I have R27 on block. Yikes, I guess we disagree on politics.

She left all her personal possessions to Lee Strasberg. I think she wanted to amend that to plainly state that she wanted her belongings distributed "among her friends." But Strasberg kept them all. They eventually ended up in the possession of his second wife, a woman who never even met Marilyn. She eventually auctioned them off and made a bundle. And she owns the rights to Marilyn's likeness! I don't know how that happened, but it did. What a travesty that a woman who had nothing to do with Marilyn ended up with all her possessions and even her likeness.

r36 Did you say on DL anything disparaging Alf Landon?

R36, who the hell cares who you blocked.

Has anyone been to her grave? I know it's a "oh Mary" but I went last tear. Being there, touching the marble was intense. I wouldn't say I am a psychic, but I do pick up things others don't. Same with Farrah's grave and Dean Martin's.

What did you pick from the graves, R40?

I've been to Marilyn's crypt. There was a slight crack in it.

I went to the grave of the guy who played Mr. Furley and Barney Fife on TV. There were knots in it.

I thought the way the mortuary people were there fucking her corpse was disgusting. At least none of the photos were made public.

Funny that R21 mentions Theda Bara and Clara Bow, as they were among several screen sirens that MM impersonated in a wonderful series by Richard Avedon.

Ummmmm, what is R44 going on about??? That sounds vile and repulsive.

It's an urban legend, R46, that Marilyn's corpse was sexually abused.

If you look at Marilyn's movies and her persona by today's standards she looks and acts like a drag queen - in other words an exaggerated version of a woman. Something like Mae West.

Not a criticism, just an observation.

Like you would know.

I don't think anyone should fill bad for Marilyn Monroe. She was a beautiful white woman who got to be a world famous Movie Star!!! I fill bad for people who weren't white during that time. Which was under Jim Crow laws. Now that was hell. Police brutality, lynchings, no good jobs, having to sit at the back of the bus, white supremacist's/ the KKK, Assassination's perpetual social injustice, unfair trials with all white jury's etc etc. I'm not taking anything away from her troubles in life. But compared to African American's living under the nightmare kown as Jim Crow America. Marilyns life was a cake walk. I bet she wouldn't trade places with a person of color back than even if it meant she'd be happy and have inner peace and contentment with herself.

Death is the ultimate equalizer. No matter who you are. Where all going to experience death!!!!!!!!!

r50 not everything is about YOU.

Holy shit too bad I ran out of FFs, R50 needs one or two or 20.

I went fishing with my dad that day. I remember hearing she was dead on the radio in the car. It's funny how some things stick with you.

[quote]she was dead on the radio in the car.

Did her corpse get in the way of driving?

Funny, I remember hearing about, on a Sunday, on TV I think., I was a kid.

To those of you who don't see MM' appeal: How can you watch her (SEE CLIP) and not see the appeal ?

In the Diamonds photo the guy on the right was the Puerto Rican gang leader in West Side Story

She truly was wondrously photogenic. The woman had no bad angles.

I remember seeing the announcement of her death on tv at my grandparents' house, which meant it was Sunday. The consensus among the parents and grandparents was that she killed herself because she was past her prime at age 36.

36 was a lot older back then than it is now. A LOT older.

That summer she was just adrift. She'd been fired from that movie (humiliating) then re-hired and it was all set to go again. But what next? She had a series of high profile failed relationships (humiliating) and wasn't seeing anyone currently. Several failed pregnancies.

The drugs, the psychiatry, the booze, the family history of mental illness, the career stagnation, the money troubles, the debris of her personal life... She thought the house would be an anchor, but it wasn't. She just drifted too far out.

And then she was gone.

It may well have been something between accident and suicide. Paradoxically, her ability to communicate her vulnerability and sadness may have been one of the things that audiences responded to. She is heartbreaking when she sings the title song in River of No Return.

I'm a huge fan and love her movies.

To the naysayers on her appeal: Just watch "The Seven Year Itch." Her beauty, style, talent, timing and almost waif-like innocence is in full glory. Discount the iconic subway grating pose, that doesn't even enter into my equation of why she had the appeal she did. In the 55 years since her death, no actress has come close to her.

Her lifelong abuse, by herself and so many others, was simply tragic, and may have also contributed to the public's perception of her. The candle-in-the-wind(please, don't throw rocks), comet across the sky, snap of the fingers career she had certainly added to her attraction. Many people felt sorry for her, and you could almost feel her unraveling(kinda' like Garland in that respect) I wonder how MM would've assessed her career, and life, if she had the luxury of looking back at it from the vantage point of 91 years?

I remember the day Marilyn Monroe died. My father and us kids were coming home from church and it was announced on the car radio that MM was found dead. My sister gasped out, "My gosh, Marilyn Monroe is dead!". I can still remember her saying that (because I probably wasn't paying any attention to the radio), and it was a Sunday.

I remember it too. I cried and cried. The pictures on tv really upset me. My mother kept trying explain to me about suicide. I didn't believe it. The woman I met was not depressed. But she was afraid of Arthur Miller. And she had horrible anxiety. Other than that, there was a lot of joy coming from her.

That Puerto Rican gang member is the greek George Chakiris.

On DL you have to be told this?

If she had lived, she wouldn't have aged well, or happily. She was aging out of sexpot roles when she died, and even if anyone had been willing to employ someone that unreliable, the gritty-real style of acting that came in during the sixties and seventies would have made her look artificial and out of place. So her career would have petered out during the sixties, she wouldn't have suddenly developed the ability to maintain stable relationships as she aged, her underlying mental issues wouldn't have gone away, and her drug habit might have gotten a LOT worse during the 1960s.

Perhaps if she'd dumped her horrible psychiatrist and found a competent one she might have made a small comeback or two late in life, but I think it's more likely that she'd leave public life and surround herself with animals. And probably not as stylishly as Tippi Hedren, Marilyn was a slob in real life, so we're probably talking fifty dogs and cats pooping everywhere.

One might reasonably suggest that Monroe’s posthumous reputation was given a significant boost by virtue of her splashy early death, much like her fellow Elton John dedicatee Princess Diana. I think that if she had lived longer her reputation would have very quickly flat-lined. In the 1960s Monroe’s campy acting style and bosomy looks fell rapidly out of favor. That, coupled with her reputation as being “difficult”, would have made it increasingly difficult for her to find any acting work. If she had lived I sort of imagine her pretty much vanishing: stints in rehab punctuated by embarrassing comeback attempts. Famous for what she had been, of course, but viewed as sad and outdated nonetheless.

Marilyn never came across as a real person onscreen, someone you could meet in real life. The artificialities of studio-era films worked for her, she could shine there, as her immense star power made you believe that her rather odd ways of speaking and relating to other characters was real, but it wouldn't have worked for much longer. Would she have seemed real in "The Graduate" or "Easy Rider", or in the New York of Scorcese films, or in the Disco era?

No, if she'd lived, she might have made a few comedies with Dean Martin and Tony Curtis, and then the offers would fade away. That's what happens, to actors who are very difficult to work with, once they're no longer moneymakers.

At 36 she was entering into middle age and being that she had no coping mechanisms for life's pains and disappointments she would have been even more miserable than she already was.

Her death was a godsend for someone so unhappy.

While I think that these speculations are probability valid, I like to think that she would have started to write, and maybe become a feminist. In late interviews, she's very sharp and her voice is strong. She would have settled in NYC and maybe taken over the Actor's Studio after Strasberg.

She would've had to continue working, she wasn't like Elizabeth Taylor who could afford to retire from movies when she was around 40. Of course, the projects would've probably gotten worse and worse, as others explained above.

She would've been like Elvis Presley in the 60s, out of style. He came back and did Vegas in his sequined jumpsuits. I'm not sure what the acting equivalent is.

"While I think that these speculations are probability valid, I like to think that she would have started to write, and maybe become a feminist. In late interviews, she's very sharp and her voice is strong. She would have settled in NYC and maybe taken over the Actor's Studio after Strasberg."

You've got to be kidding. Poor Marilyn was a basket case; she never could have "taken over" anything, much less the Actor's Studio. And she was no feminist; she was a man's woman, always needing a man, always feeling empty without a man. But she could never sustain a relationship with one (Arthur Miller lasted the ongest: five years). She would never have tried to write. She was not inclined to writing, or reading either, despite all those photos of her pretending to be reading cerebral books. She wanted to be thought of as intelligent, but she was very uneducated and would remain so until her death. Mostly what she was known and admired for was her amazing screen presence, her glamorous beauty and for being extremely photogenic. Those were her strengths.

She would have had a very hard time keeping acting, even if she'd done the unlikely and started showing up for work on time and prepared. She would have been forty soon if she'd lived, and her only option would have been to play mothers and take other supporting roles. But she had so much star quality that she'd actually have had a hard time adapting to being a character actress, her genius was as a STAR and her style wouldn't have adapted to supporting roles in the realistic films of the sixties and seventies.

And no, she wasn't stable or professional enough to teach or to run a school, if the camera frightened her so much it'd take hours and a handful of seconals to do a few takes, how would a classful of needy students affect her? And I suppose there's a chance she would have had a feminist period while feminism was fashionable, but it wouldn't have stuck. Her screen personal was 100% as a man's woman, one who is only on the screen because of her relationship with a man, in her private life she might have finally decided that men were more trouble than they were worth and given up on heterosexuality. Really, I don't see why more people don't, from her it sure looks like it sucks.

Fuck reality. She would have done great.

I'm not saying she wanted to die but I think she would like the world always remembering her has young and beautiful. Look what a joke celebs like Madonna and others who started to get ridiculous looking work on their faces in their late 30s and just keep doing it until they don't even look human anymore.

If she had lived passed 40 and gotten a good shrink or even some good advice she would have stopped acting and just gotten some kind of career endorsing things.

People forget that another of the 'chorus boys' was future tv star ROBERT FULLER.

[QUOTE]She would've been like Elvis Presley in the 60s, out of style. He came back and did Vegas in his sequined jumpsuits. I'm not sure what the acting equivalent is.

I'd guess to either change with the times and become a good character actress or wait a good ten, fifteen years and then reemerge like Diana Dors did in England.

Misfit Girl, are you the one who met her on the set of The Misfits? I remember your recollections.

"ROBERT FULLER"

That's Bob? He provided me with a lot of "material" when I was a young'un. That kneeling blond to the left is cute and slutty looking.

Humpy ED FURY is also featured; he was one of the Oylmpic team members travelling on the ship. For me, you could almost say that he was the 'blond' preferred.

Here's ................. ED

R81 Yes.

I think Russell and MM were friendly when filming. Russell said that she would get the reluctant Marilyn to the set by going to the dressing room and saying, "Come on, Blondie."

Boo boo bee doo

Aside from her passing, it seems a shame that "Something's Got to Give" wasn't completed. A lot of the film was shot, and in the 45 or so minutes of footage you can see what a marvelous light comedienne she was. She is luminous and very funny in the footage completed. I was surprised how sure-footed she was in this troubled production.

When I look at that footage, I find that she is not at the top of her game, and frail seeming. Maybe its because I know what happened.

^^^And I'm a big fan.

Anyone see "Dont Bother To Knock?" She plays a very disturbed young woman. She's effective, but when you know her story, it's sad to watch.

Had Marilyn lived she'd probably ended up married to some wealthy tycoon and would have been deeply loved. Who would've provided for her beyond her wildest dreams. She would've been a kept woman. Huge mansion, personal driver. Personal chef's, shopping at the major high-end department stores and a jet set life. As well as the best mental health treatment. She would've been fine with life after Hollywood. And I don't think she would've missed the limelight at all.

I am not so sure her career had ended abruptly. She was the rare combination of an actress who was good in comedy and also could do drama AND the camera absolutely loved her. She was really special. I tend to believe she was murdered. The story of the house keeper giving her an enema is stupid.

r57 Yeah, George Chakiris. He said he was always asked by friends if Marilyn was as beautiful in person as she was on the screen and he said absolutely yes, since he worked so closely with her on "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" in that dance scene.

Apologies, R51, FFed the wrong person.

"Had Marilyn lived she'd probably ended up married to some wealthy tycoon and would have been deeply loved. Who would've provided for her beyond her wildest dreams. She would've been a kept woman. Huge mansion, personal driver. Personal chef's, shopping at the major high-end department stores and a jet set life. As well as the best mental health treatment. She would've been fine with life after Hollywood. And I don't think she would've missed the limelight at all."

That NEVER would have happened. She never got involved with men because of their money. She was not materialistic at all, never in her life. Her early lover/agent Johnny Hyde begged her to marry him; he was madly in love with her. He told that if she married him she'd never have to worry about money again that she'd be well taken care of in that regard. But she said no, she couldn't marry him, because although she loved him she was not IN love with him. Marilyn was just not that type to marry a man for his money so she could live a pampered, leisurely lifestyle.

Marilyn was devastated by the Kennedys' rejection of her. Soon the camera would have rejected her as her aging face would have been unmercifully revealed. Sinatra as well was used and humiliated by the Kennedys(who wasn't?) and though very angry and bitter he was made of sterner stuff.

She had to be catered to and already with Something's Got To Give(even Cukor who had spent a lifetime of coddling insecure money making screen stars was fed up) it wasn't happening anymore. Considering all the drugs she needed to take just to get of bed she would have found life no more tolerable than Garland, Elvis or Jackson.

R95 yeah, Marilyn's image as a gold digger stems mainly from her signature song "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend." But if you research her actual life, she was far from materialistic. She had simple tastes in her private life. Not like Liz Taylor who demanded gifts and jewels from her paramours and directors.

R88 the film was recast with Doris Day (and others), revised, and released a year later as MOVE OVER, DARLING, which was a big success. One of the top hits of the year. That fact always made me sad, because Marilyn needed that hit, after the disappointing MISFITS and LET'S MAKE LOVE.

[quote]in her private life she might have finally decided that men were more trouble than they were worth and given up on heterosexuality. Really, I don't see why more people don't, from her it sure looks like it sucks.

R76 I don't think heterosexuality was her problem(s).

Brazilian playboy Jorge Guinle, who romanced Marilyn, Rita and Kim Novak, said in many interviews that Marilyn was a call girl when he first met her.

I have to hand it to Dean Martin - when they tried to recast Marilyn with Lee Remick - he said he would make the movie only with Marilyn. They did hire her back. She was going to finish that movie when she died.

R101 I wonder how Lee Remick felt about that slight?

R101 They eventually did do the movie with the world's biggest female box office star, Doris Day, and costarring James Garner. "Move Over Darling", 1963. Pretty good movie.

Yes, R90, she was good in "Don't Bother To Knock" because her odd acting style actually fit that character.

"I have to hand it to Dean Martin - when they tried to recast Marilyn with Lee Remick - he said he would make the movie only with Marilyn."

Supposedly he did that because he wanted out of the whole thing. He thought if he insisted on Marilyn they'd abandon the project altogether. I seriously doubt that if she had lived the movie would have been made with her. She was incapable of working; she wouldn't show up, couldn't remember lines. She could never have finished that movie.

R91, I guessed you missed the part about her being unable to sustain a romantic relationship. Sure, she was always able to interest men, but once they found out how unstable, needy, difficult, and drugged-up she was, they realized the rescue fantasy was not going to work and they gave up on the relationship. Lots of people like to think she just needed a good man to take care of her, she liked to think all she needed was a good man to take care of her, but when she got a good man who tried to take care of her she still popped pills and had breakdowns and couldn't bear to do her job.

And millionaires who want to lavish all the good things in life on their women can always find someone who can go to bed without a handful of seconals.

There is a video on youtube of Cyd Charisse being interviewed about this film in which she has a featured part. There is also a scene of her and Monroe attempting to finish a few lines.

She claimed that Martin who was always so easygoing on the set one day blew his top and walked off because of Monroe's constant calling in sick. She never saw him like that before and it was the end of the film. In the little of it that remains Monroe is terrific and she is still very beautiful. How unfortunate she couldn't finish it.

Marilyn Monroe, Joe DiMaggio used to babysit local mayor

If anyone can find that Cyd Charisse interview, can you please post it here?

TIA!

"In the little of it that remains Monroe is terrific and she is still very beautiful."

She still looked good, but her acting was terrible. She was vague and unfocused. And in the scenes with the children she is very unconvincing as a mother. She seems more like one of the children.

[quote]She seems more like one of the children.

How do you mean?

She doesn't seem grown up.

Yeah, she seems more like their older sister than mother.

Misfit girl, did MM use her breathy voice when speaking to you? I've heard interviews in which her voice is lower and bell like. Do you have pics with her? Thanks.

I 've heard tapes of Marilyn Monroe's final interview. You can hear it on YouTube. No, she didn't have that breathy voice in real life. Her voice is ordinary sounding. The interview is kind of disturbing. At one point she says "please don't make me look like a joke" and then she starts laughing in this weird, high-pitched kind of squeal.

Marilyn's private speaking voice was lower, and she sounded like a regular person. That high, breathy voice was just an act that she used for her image. Jackie O was exactly the same way. I've read that Jackie's natural speaking voice - which she only used in private - was husky and she sounded very "Long Island."

R114 She spoke in a regular voice. Was clear minded and adult. She was very concerned as to why I was there. She asked if my mother was trying to get me in the movie. Then -when I was with her the next day - this time with my mother and baby brother and she invited us into her trailer - she asked my mother that question straight out. When my mother said no, she wasn't there to put me in the movie. Marilyn remembered the answer I have given her the day before - that my mother and aunt wanted to come to the Misfit filming because they wanted to see Clark Gable. When I told Marilyn that she laughed. Then she teased my Mom with it a little the next day. Pretty funny.

Also, the first day I was alone with her she was dressed in that white, kind of sheer dress with cherries on it. Somewhere in the time I was talking to her, I noticed she didn't have anything on underneath it. My reaction must have shown. She said pay no mind to that, it was just something she had to do. But then she told me to remember talking to me when I was older. And to not be that like that. Stay sweet - something like that. Her interest in me and her sincerity was very real.

I LOVE reading your posts, Misfit Girl!

R115 she got tipsy on champagne during that interview. She becomes more uninhibited as the interview goes on, blaming TPTB for all her troubles, though the interviewer dismissed it as her being a drunken fool. Not his words, but the gist.

R117 Misfit Girl, I so envy you, but at the same time, I don't begrudge the time you spent with Marilyn. You must feel blessed. Seriously. She's one of the most iconic figures ever, and you got to know her as a real person. Now you're one of the very few alive who interacted with her.

R117 from your last paragraph, it seems as if Marilyn's problem(s) was that her innocence was lost (or rather, taken from her) at an early age, which might also explain why she gravitated toward children and why she had a childlike innocence at odds with her highly sexual image.

For those of you that have commented that she was a fat cow, here's a modern fast hand account about Marilyn's size. Really a great short readd.

^^first hand account^^

Towards the end of her life Marilyn was quite thin. I think she only weighed 115 pounds when she died. Of course she was not ALWAYS that thin. In some of her films she looks heavy and overweight. She was that way in "Some Like It Hot (she was pregnant at the time)", and she looked pasty and overweight in "Let's Make Love" and "The Misfits." Her weight fluctuated.

"She was aging out of sexpot roles when she died... the gritty-real style of acting that came in during the sixties and seventies would have made her look artificial and out of place."

Ignorant. She was applying her method acting and gaining depth in her performances at the time of her death.

I think she was heavier in a couple of films, but for the most part MM was thin. It's just that people like to selectively point out the times when she was not looking her best.

From The Last Sitting:

I think she looked better with a few more pounds she was gorgeous in Prince and the Showgirl.

If Marilyn had lived, maybe she would've been cast as Mrs. Robinson in the Graduate. She would've been exactly the right age, and what a performance she could've given in that part.!

[QUOTE]said in many interviews that Marilyn was a call girl when he first met her.

And that makes it an absolute ? What's his credibility ?

I wouldn't be surprised if Marilyn did a little discreet escort work when she was young and broke, it's certainly been claimed in many sources. The same has been said about Joan Crawford. Who really knows if it happened though.

And who among us can cast the first stone. That doesn't mean she was materialistic, as someone else has already noted. She wouldn't have gone the "rich man's consort " route. This may not be the time for me to give any specifics about how she and a couple of trusted friends faked her death, thereby freeing her from the Hollwood merry-go-round, and onto a new and adventure-filled life.

Funny story about Marilyn: One of her loves was Fred Karger but instead of marrying her, he married Jane Wyman (twice actually). When Fred and Jane divorced after their first marriage, Jane allegedly said something along the lines of, " now you're free to go play with that trash again." Marilyn heard the story so one night not long afterwards when she and a girlfriend were out driving around they came across a movie theater that was showing THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH with a huge cut out of Marilyn in the white halter dress from the subway grate scene. Marilyn and her friend stole the cut-out, placed it in the back of the friend's convertible and drove to Wyman's home up in Holmby Hills placing the cut-out prominently on Jane Wyman's front lawn.

I believe this is the dress Misfit Girl is describing.

From this picture, I think she might have been well advised to wear something under it, at least a bra.

Hope that's true. It's wonderful.

She looks beautiful there. I can see the tender MM that Misfit Girl described.

Monroe wasn't fat, she was just... soft. Soft and pale and not toned, in a way that's very much out of fashion these days.

Weirdly, I missed this and didn't see any imagery online or on news, yet had an overwhelming impulse to buy my Mom some "Chanel No. 5" yesterday. Can't tell you why.

Growing up I always thought Marilyn was racist. Only because of the time she lived and because attractive white women like herself from that era of America had a touch of irrational bigotry and racism to them. Like most whites did. But than I heard about some of the things she was involved in as fare as civil rights go and I thought that sounded just like her. She really did seem to have a pure heart. She was just really damaged by life.

MM refused to go to some famous night club because the racist club owner wouldn't hire Ella Fitzgerald. The club capitulated and Ella was hired and MM was there on her opening night, garnering lots of good publicity for all involved.

[QUOTE]Growing up I always thought Marilyn was racist. Only because of the time she lived and because attractive white women like herself from that era of America had a touch of irrational bigotry and racism to them.

No dear, the real bigotry lies with you and your ilk.

R138 part of the reason why Marilyn acquired an FBI file is because of her support of civil rights and leftist views. Frederick Vanderbilt Field, who was disinherited by his wealthy family for his radical political views, wrote in his autobio about Marilyn, when she visited him in Mexico where he was self-exiled: "She told us about her strong feelings for civil rights, for black equality, as well as her admiration for what was being done in China, her anger at red-baiting and McCarthyism and her hatred of J Edgar Hoover." That visit was confirmed by the FBI files released in 2012.

BTW: The FBI suspected that her marriage to Arthur Miller was a "cover up," that Miller was a "cultural frontman for the Communist Party," and that money from Marilyn Monroe Productions was finding its way to the Communist Party. According to the files, Monroe's views were "very positively and concisely leftist. However, if she is being actively used by the Communist Party is it not general knowledge among those working with the movement in Los Angeles."

I remember reading in some MM biography an incident that occurred while she was living in NYC. MM was walking down the street when she came upon an NYPD officer was harassing some young guys calling them homophobic slurs just because these guys had long hair (in the late 50's/early 60's long hair on men was considered a sure sign of homosexuality.) She stops the officer and asked him what he was doing he immediately recognized her and started hammering blah blah blah, she told him they aren't hurting anyone and to just leave them alone. The cop excused himself and left the scene.

[quote]MM was walking down the street when she came upon an NYPD officer was harassing some young guys calling them homophobic slurs just because these guys had long hair (in the late 50's/early 60's long hair on men was considered a sure sign of homosexuality.)

Isn't that what they called 'masquerading laws'? It criminalized women for wearing men’s clothes, men wearing longer hair, etc. Cops would profile such people as gay and often beat them up, even the women.

I wonder who she thought was better in the sack John or Bobby?

R145 Marilyn didn't care for sex, per se. She preferred the intimacy. I gather she got that more from Bobby than Jack, who seemed to be just a womanizer. Bobby always seemed more sensitive to me. I believe Jackie thought so, too.

R140 Slavery, Jim Crow, and every other systemic legislation that negatively affected the lives of minorities on a racially discriminatory basis says otherwise. Which were put in place by elite WASP men. But don't let that stop you from believing in you're own revisionist history. Or what you precive to be the case today.

Rose colored glasses must be a lot of fun to wear!!!!

I've heard before that Marilyn didn't get much physical pleasure from sex.

She used sex to get what she wanted in private life and her whole persona is built around appealing to straight men - or rather, appearing to be what straight men wish women were like (which is probably why she always seemed so artificial to me). There's a huge difference between a woman who really likes sex and a woman who takes advantage of men's desire for sex, the latter is usually seen as sexier but they aren't in a way. Marilyn spent her adult life using sex to manipulate people and doing it on a mass scale, aging would have taken that away from her. Perhaps fate was kind, in the long run.

I'm missing her and I didn't even know her. She shoulda stayed here in NYC. This place knew how to appreciate her.

If you believe Anthony Summers, a tabloid reporter who wrote "Goddess: The Secret Lives of Marilyn Monroe", a very trashy bio of Marilyn with a lot of inaccuracies, the great love of her life was Fred Karger, a vocal coach at Columbia Pictures. According to Summers, she was "dizzily in love" with him and would have done anything to be with him, including giving up her hopes of an acting career. He took her to meet his family, but wouldn't marry her. He had a son from a previous relationship and supposedly he told Marilyn marriage was out of the question because if he, Karger, dropped dead and the boy was left with her it would be "unfair to him" to be raised "by a woman like you." In other words, he thought she was good enough to fuck but not good enough to marry. She still loved him, though. She gave him a gold watch and spent two years paying it off on an installment plan. She just engraved it with a date, saying "you'll have some other girl to love...you couldn't use my gift if my name was was it." If true, that is so sad. But who knows? That book by Summers is truly a trashy piece of work and he takes as gospel truth the reminiscences of Robert Slatzer and Jeanne Carmen, two nut jobs who made careers out of pretending to be Marilyn's second husband and good buddy "roommatre", respectively.

I was coming in here to say how remarkable it is that we have a participant in this forum who actually knew and connected to Marilyn Monroe so long ago. Then I saw that several others had already praised and approved of "Misfit Girl." She has been nothing but gracious and generous in her comments throughout the years and I truly appreciate her taking the time to tell her stories.

I think that Catherine Hicks was the most "real" MM that we are ever going to get on film. I have been looking for the clip of Catherine imitating Marilyn's becoming Marilyn on the streets of NYC. Great acting.

R150

Interesting that he died on the 17th anniversary of her death.

Ha, I happen to be in Brentwood today. Shall I go by her house and take a photo of the entrance/fence? Tell me the address and I'll post a picture here!

Just Google the address R153.

I found it. It's a ten min. walk from where I am.

R155 go for it. It'll be something fun to do.

Here you go

Thanks, R157. I got it. Will walk over there later.

The Westwood Village memorial park is also well worth a visit, as others have noted too. Billy Wilder is also buried there, as Is Jack Lemmon, who has a very witty epitaph on his tombstone ( 'Jack Lemmon', 'In', and then just the grass). John Cassavetes is buried next to his mother-in-law, Lady Rowlands. It's a lovely spot to spend an hour or so. There's always lipstick on Marilyn's crypt wall.

"There's always lipstick on Marilyn's crypt wall."

That is just disgustingly sick. Kissing her tomb! I heard the marble has had to be replaced a few times due to the lipstick stains. What kind of a fucking freak would do such a thing? I'll bet if they could get at her corpse they'd probably fuck it.

Zowie!

Dean Martin......... Natalie Wood.............. Fanny Brice........ Burt Lancaster ...................... George C. Scott ++++

Here's a photograph of Marilyn from February 1962 wearing the green dress they dressed her in for her funeral.

I don't know how she got modeling jobs as a teen, she's nothing special, but she turned into something amazing.

rare hunny

The street name is purposely overgrown, I'm sure.

She lived on a cul-de-sac, as you may already know:

There are two houses at the end.

12305 was her address:

Another view:

This is as much as one can see standing outside:

It looks like you may be able to click on the first link at R166 and view all images at once.

Thanks for pics. Wasn't that the only house she ever owned, and wasn't it just sold (maybe that's upthread)?

Thanks for the pictures.

I wonder who decided on that dress she was laid out in? I read somewhere that her half-sister Berniece thought of dress of blue or white would have been better. It probably would have been. That green dress just doesn't seem right. She rarely wore green. She seemed to prefer white clothing for the most part. This kind of reminds me of Jean Harlow. When Harlow died, she was supposedly to have been laid away in a white gown (white was Harlow's signature color) but for some odd reason her mother decided to have her wear a pink negligee from the last film she'd been working on, "Saratoga." A good friend of Harlow's, her stand in I think, saw her laying in the coffin and thought it was odd, because she NEVER wore pink. Then she fainted from grief.

I hate the green burial dress. The color is unflattering, the cut makes her look bulky, it clings like static and not like sexy, and it just looks cheap.

Maybe it was just the only high-necked modest dress she owned.

There are images of what people thought was Marilyn dead in her green Pucci dress, fully made up and looking beautiful. People thought it was real pictures of Marilyn's corpse but it was just a realistic looking sculpture some artist had made.

Maybe the green dress WAS the only high necked one she owned. She tended to wear very low cut dresses in order to show off her bountiful bosom. But after the autopsy her boobs were gone; it made her chest flat. A couple of her friends got some kind of material for stuffing and created the illusion of breasts, but I assume that's why she was dressed in the high necked Pucci dress; her breasts were fake. She also had a scarf around her neck; I think that was to conceal her neck, which the autopsy caused to sag. The autopsy greatly changed her appearance.

R177 yeah, I hate when people point to the morgue photos (obviously post-autopsy), thinking she looked a terrible mess at the end. But eyewitness claim that she still looked beautiful in death... until the autopsy. She also had discoloration on her face, because she was facing down, which caused the blood to settle there.

Her boobies looked very real to me!

I agree the green dress is ugly. Wonder if Joe D was behind that decision? Buried her in a Norma Jean dress.

R179 I think R177 was referring to how her chest look after the autopsy. They had to use falsies, because they really did a number on her.

I see 180. Thanks for explaining. How horrid. I never want to see those photos either.

Thanks for the pics.

Anthony Summers, in his tabloid tome "Goddess", featured the infamous photo of Marilyn lying on a slab in the morgue. It was after the autopsy and she is virtually unrecognizable. Her hair is hanging straight back, limp and wet looking. Her face is mottled and discolored. And her face and neck sag like and old woman's. She looks at least 50 years old. What an indignity that photo is. The sex goddess of all time, reduced to that.

I don't think anyone looks sexy lying on a slab in the morgue, R183. Maybe you didn't mean it that way, but...

r183 " She looks at least 50 years old."

She looks dead.

How does a doornail die?

I wonder what Marilyn's corpse would look like now.

R187 nothing but bones and dust by now if that. I would say not much of anything is left now except hair and the green dress she was buried in.

R188 then why do they often exhume dead bodies from decades ago where a murder case is involved? If all there is left are hair and bits of clothing, I don't think the examiners would find it useful. But apparently, they do, since it happens regularly.

R189 I'm just assuming that, that's all that is left.

"I don't think anyone looks sexy lying on a slab in the morgue."

I don't think anyone expected her to look sexy in the morgue. But she did look very ravaged; it was shocking to see her looking that way, her, Marilyn Monroe, the sex goddess of all time, looking so destroyed.

I think it was also in the Summers book that he said the real life makeup and personal assistants that MM had for most of her career were allowed to fix her up for the funeral. They made sure she looked almost like she did when alive and yes, stuffed her bosom because they said MM without a bosom just wasn't right. The green dress was allegedly one of her favorites and her head was covered with a wig.

I wonder why Joe stopped his delivery of roses to the crypt after something like 25 years went bye. He stopped loving her that day?

I've been reading the last few posts with a squint, so as not to really read them. Once she was dead, she wasn't glorious Marilyn. That was an empty envelope, same as all dead people.

[quote]I've been reading the last few posts with a squint, so as not to really read them.

What's the point?

There's another MM morgue pic, it's a full-face shot. I'm not going to link to it, but you can Google it. It's gruesome.

It was all make-up.

Now you get the squinting?

Her biographies would state that it would take an hour or two hours to make up her face. There's some YouTube video that shows a makeup artist giving a model "Marilyn's Makeup Look." It's a very involved process; lots of shading with makeup base, false eyelashes, lots of eye makeup, a lot of liner and lipstick to make the lips look lush and well defined and sexy. It seems that even for someone with good features beauty is largely illusion. By the way, Marilyn must have had very dry skin. She liked to use Vaseline as a moisturizer.

Back then, they didn't have the millions of beauty products available today. Even the high-end cosmetics were pretty harsh.

In my personal opinion Marilyn looked her best during her ladies of the chorus, days. Which was back in the late 1940's, she was really stunning during that time to me. She was fresh faced she was in her 20s and she had longer hair which I always thought looked better on her. Than the short hair she had during the 50s. This was also before she really became Marilyn Monroe. I also believe this was the time in her life she was the most happiest getting her first taste of fame. I've always also thought she looked really good her last few year's of life too. I know she wasn't really well. But there was just something about her I thought was very appealing about her.But the late 40s for sure was when she looked her best. She was a true California beauty for sure.

I have a friend who's 93 who was Marilyn's neighbor in Brentwood.

r196 My God, I had no idea how much make-up these stars had on. Now I understand why they had to spend three or four hours in a make-up chair.

R196 maybe it took all that makeup to make that model look like Marilyn, but Marilyn already had the features. The makeup just accentuated them. Here she is as a young teenager, and the Marilyn gaze is pretty evident.

Honestly, if anyone would just take the time to watch her in that Person to Person interview linked upthread, where she doesn't appear to wearing much more than standard street makeup and is shot with primitive TV cameras and lighting and yet SHE STILL LOOKS GLORIOUS.........

She was an extraordinary beauty. It was not about perfect features but about a unique inner glow.

I agree R200. The late 1940s were her prime. She looked best with the long strawberry blonde hair and not a lot of makeup. The harsh 1950s makeup and bleached hair made her look older.

NO ONE has as many iconic/memorable photos as Marilyn.

Is strawberry blonde more of a blondish or reddish color?

this is my fave pic. divine!!

R205 she really was very stunning during that time.

My all time favorite photo of Marilyn. I think she looks genuinely happy here:

Platinum blonde hair always looks harsh. In her later years, her hair was bleached white. I didn't think it was becoming. In "The Misfits" she's obviously wearing a bad wig. I guess her hair was really torn up by then.

R207 This is her strawberry blonde hair, it's really more golden with some red tones:

R210 that's a beautiful photo of Marilyn. I found her to be the most fascinating during that time of her life. It was right before things got really crazy for her. Because of her international fame

Young Marilyn is my personal favorite. She was just so fresh looking in her 20s which was back in the mid/late 40s. Very American and very California.

That's a lovely pic.

How in the world did she have time for so many pics to be taken. Also, when I read bios of her, she seems to have had so many projects and evenings out, it's as if there were several Marilyns around, to do all of those things, in a mere 36 years.

R215 not to mention that Marilyn was only famous for fewer than ten years. She had been a starlet until 1953, when NIAGARA, GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES, and HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE were released in quick succession and made her an international star. The end of the year also saw the release of the first issue of Playboy, with Marilyn on the cover and first centerfold, which further enhanced her notoriety. And then she was dead just 9 years later.

Another beautiful photo of Marilyn with her agent. He wanted to marry her and take care of her. But she said NO.

R212 thanks!

Sorry here's the photo form R217. The link didn't work. I hope it does this time.

Sorry.

R201

From what I've read over the years, it wasn't that it necessarily took 2 hours to make her up but she herself enjoyed taking her sweet time. If she was home and getting ready for the evening to go out, she'd put a stack of records on the phonograph and start the make up. I do know that her favorite make up was by someone named Erno Laszlo or something and some of his products had to seep in & allowed top dry so it wasn't like she was working on her face for 2 hours straight.

Look at Marilyn in the image below. No make up & yet, you can tell it's Marilyn and she was still stunning without make-up.

Some of the best images of her were taken obtained by the skill of Milton Green & his camera. He softened her hair and make up and she looked terrific.

R220, a striking image, but it's almost sepia (there would be some color to her lips otherwise), and there may be makeup at least to accentuate the eyelids.

She had that production company with Milton Greene, who did take some lovely shots, and possibly they had an affair.

More likely she had a thruple with Milton Greene and his cute wife.

Did you watch the Person the Person interview, r222?

I think Marilyn looked sensational right before she died. She had really slimmed down, adapted her signature hairstyle for the early 60s, and the early 60s fashions looked great on her.

R224

Marilyn dropped a good deal of weight once she had her gall bladder removed in 1961. It was partially why she'd gotten heavier in the 5 years beforehand.

R224 I completely agree with you. I'm poster R200 and I said I've always thought she was at her best back in the late 40s because of her youth and fresh California girl looks. But I've also always said just like you. That Marilyn look really good just right before she died. She did lose good weight and she looked much better thinner. I don't know what it is about celebrities and and dying young. But I've seen a lot of star's look really good just right before they passed. It's like they have this one last major glow about them before they make there grand EXIT from the world. And I've seen this with lots of star's.

A bunch of early pics. It's obvious to me that Mortenson was her biological father. His broad Scandinavian handsomeness combined with her mother's wispy prettiness created Marilyn's attractiveness.

Marilyn Monroe's "official" father was Edward Mortenson, but her actual biological father was almost certainly a man named Charles Gifford, who Marilyn never knew. You can see a definite resemblance between her and Gifford.

Yes. However, further down there is another photo purported to be of Gifford, and in fact is of B actor Jon Carroll.

I thought she looked awful before she died, way too thin and that fried, bleached hair wasn't doing her any favors.

Agree. If she looked that thin in photos, she would have looked gaunt in "real" life.

R231 how do you mean?

People look at least 10 pounds heavier in photos and film than they are. You often hear about people seeing film actors and being so surprised at how small they are.

Back to her house, it's such a strange neighborhood. The homes are relatively small for Brentwood (the homes just north of Sunset Blvd are major mansions, Joan Crawford lived there, as did OJ and his infamous house), and then there's the weird naming of the Helenas St, 1, 2, 3, etc.. I don't think there's anything like it in LA.

Is it true she faked her own death?

R235 yes, Rose. He's a lizard.

Elvis died 40 years ago.

Yeah, you are right, R234, but walking there the other day, I have to say it's a lovely neighborhood. Lots of greenery. I ran into a woman walking a dog who said hi, then on my way back I saw her talking to some other neighbors. It seemed to me like a low key, non-pretentious, homey neighborhood.

R236 Sorry, was that a yes or no? My name is not Rose, it's Alistair.

I'm a huge fan of marilyn and I heard there was a strong possibility that she faked her own death.

Well, R236, there's this : R131

I'll take it. I think she knew that was the only way that she'd ever be left alone. She certainly had the right Hollywood and political connections for setting up a new life (which probably must have included a new face). There's a line in one of her last interviews that's something like, "so long, fame, I've had you." I think Marilyn got the last laugh.

Yas Marilyn faked her own death she lives in the same condo as Elvis and Micharl Jackson they play Gin Rummy every Saturday.

Hope your failed attempt at humor gave you some jollies.

Is it true that Marilyn and Joan Crawford had some type of sexual relationship? I just don't see Crawford being into woman. She seemed to be the type that was really man crazy and all about the almighty DICK!!!!! But than again who knows. It is Hollywood after all.

Marilyn looked better than ever in her last year. Older certainly, but very beautiful. Hedda Hopper, who didn't like her, said that Marilyn had never looked better after Monroe's appearance at the Golden Globe Awards. Bert Stern who took some of the last photos was startled by her slender beauty "This was no, aging, voluptuous woman she was gorgeous!" . When he met Marilyn she was without makeup and had a scarf over her hair. A recent book said that gall bladder surgery had helped the weight loss but she was also dieting having realized that the 60s were going to require a new look that was different from the curvy, voluptuous 50s and she was trying to adapt to a new era. George Masters, her Make Up and Hair guy in '62, said that Marilyn's lengthy ritual was not about the makeup but about Marilyn getting into the mood to be "Marilyn" in public. Her housekeeper said the ritual involved music, bathing, and took time to "woo the sensual persona into being" . Masters said that when "Marilyn" suddenly appeared as he put on her lipstick or adjusted her dress it was an incredible metamorphosis. He said her manner, the way she moved, all changed. Writing about it years after her death he said he still got goosebumps remembering it. He also said that yellow blonde hair made her look harsh and the whiter he made her hair, the softer and more ethereal she looked. He said that she was the only women that this look worked for. Other clients of his asked for Marilyn's white on white look and it never worked for them .

"Marilyn looked better in her last year."

Her last year in public.

Her mother, who she was in and out of mental hospitals, outlived her by almost 22 years. Did Marilyn leave any money towards her mother's care, or did Strasberg get it all?

"Is it true that Marilyn and Joan Crawford had some type of sexual relationship? I just don't see Crawford being into woman. She seemed to be the type that was really man crazy and all about the almighty DICK!!!!! But than again who knows. It is Hollywood after all."

No. Crawford was jealous of Monroe and hated her guts. There was no sexual relationship.

That silly story came from a very old man named John Miner who was a prosecutor in L.A. at the time of Marilyn death. When in his eighties (shades of Scotty Bowers) he came out with what he said were "tapes" of Marilyn's psychiatric session with her possessive psychiatrist Ralph Greenson. He said Greenson wanted him to hear the tapes to absolve himself of all blame for Marilyn's death. Miner said he listened to them and took "extensive notes." And that it all the proof that any such tapes existed. You just have to take the word of a batty old man (Miner thought Marilyn had been murdered). The woman depicted on the tapes sounds like what a chauvinistic, not very bright guy think Marilyn Monroe was like: a dimwitted slut. On the tapes "Marilyn" goes on and on about sex; she even tells her Greenson she'd love to have sex with him, but of course he's too noble and ethical to do that. But she sure would love to fuck him! And there was the Joan Crawford tale. She and Joan had a one night stand and Marilyn was such an expert cunt eater that Joan screamed in ecstasy. Joan wanted more, but once was enough for Marilyn, so Joan always hated her after that. Marilyn also mentions her good friend Mae West. Marilyn Monroe never met Mae West. By the way, Greenson's family denied the existence of any such tapes. I suspect that this old man just wanted some recognition and attention in his old age, and what better way to get it than by coming out with unheard "tapes" of Marilyn Monroe pouring her slutty little heart out to her psychiatrist? Poor Marilyn; Miner's "tapes" made her seem like a complete idiot.

r246 In her will, the actress set up a trust to care for her mother until she died; left money to her half-sister, who Monroe didn't even know existed until she was 12; and made bequests to a poet friend and his wife (she loved poetry, and even wrote some herself) and to others she trusted.

Don't read this article. It will make you furious. The Jews got most of it and more.

Thanks R247 I never understood where that story/rumor came from.

[quote] left money to her half-sister, who Monroe didn't even know existed until she was 12

And they didn't meet until Norma Jeane was fully grown. I find it sad that Marilyn grew up (and was moved about) without parents and siblings. I too was a ward of the state growing up, but at least I had my siblings with me. I can't imagine going at it alone.

Thanks, R248! I'm glad to hear that. I seem to recall reading somewhere that Marilyn was going to revise her will to leave Strasberg much less. Does anyone else remember that?

Bump for Marilyn

I completely agree with r2. She always seemed tacky to me (as is the fascination with her).

Fuck off R253

r254, go ahead and stamp your little foot impotently again. I post where I please.

R19 Thank you, you're very kind.

The house was perfect for her. She didnt want anything too big as she was lonely enough living on her own She was remodeling it at the time of her death and curiuosly she was turning it into almost an exact copy of dr greensons house. He exerted way way too much control over her life at that point. DImaggio had met Greenson and his family Dec 1961 and saw a trainwreck ahead......which happened. Marilyn trusted Greenson completely mainly because he didnt blab her secret. That was that she was hearing voices and had been for a few years and was schizophrenic. As her psyciatrist it was his professional duty to keep that info private so why marilyn put so much stock in that is beyond me. Between Greensons unethical behavior and out of control emotional involvement with Marilyn and his complete lack of medical ethics on her last night alive with the medication he prescibed to get her to sleep..............chloral hydrate enema administered by housekeeper Eunice Murray whille he was not present. It sounds crazy but its what happeded IMO. Marilyn had been taking nembutal throughout her last day to calm her neves due to complications with Greenson and Murray that last day and chloral hydrate and nembutal are a lethal mix in higher doses. Marilyns half sister is still alive at 100 and there is no reason to think Marilyn wouldnt be alive today had she been more prudent in her choices. SHe was a good actress but not a natural one and it took a hell of a lot of takes on her part and alot of work off camera to get the results she got on film. You have to admit even if you arent a fan that when she is in a scene everybody else just disappears, no matter who it is. Extremely brillant model also. Very very photogenic.........however her last few photo shoots she wasnt happy with what she was seeing and the camera was picking up the aging process. I think she would have acted for a few more years and then gone into retirement and semi seclusion, probably married to Dimaggio

Anthony summers book was trash, You could tell he absolutely hated marilyn monroe. He published the post autopsy photo. Does anybody have any idea what they do to the body during an autopsy? Lets put it this way........they use saws.............generally if somebody has had an autopsy including the head it automatically means a closed casket at the funeral. Prior to the autopsy at death she was described as tired looking and in need of a manicure, but still beautiful. On her last day she had done some gardening in her yard and probably had dirt under ner nails. SHe was pretty without makeup but makeup and hair and clothes really put it altogether for Marilyn.

PS, she had a one night stand only with JFK. SHe was friendly with Bobby but privately described him as puny to friends. I dont think she was in love with JFK I think what devasted her is she wanted to have a thing with him after their fling in Palm springs spring of 62 and he wasnt interested. This was the first time in her life basically she didnt get what she wanted in the romantic dept. She attributed it to her fading looks instead of to the fact that JFK didnt like or appreciate women much and to him she was just another lay........